After using AMD FX 6300 for 3.5 years, I decided to go with Intel Core i7 this time. CPU performance has reached a saturation point in everyday usage and Intel CPUs have aged well. A Core i5 3500 still holds fine in anything you can throw at it including gaming. Considering that the market is filled with Core i5 Quad Core CPUs, developers are optimizing their games for Quad Core CPUs a lot now.

I reused my old Cabinet and Power supply with this new machine as they are more than enough in terms of the power they provide.